Poll of the Week: Climate Change in the 2012 Election

Further proving how much influence Tea Party members yield over the Republican Presidential field, new polling this week conducted by Public Religion Research Institute in partnership with Religion News Service suggests there are large divisions between the beliefs of Tea Party members and the general public on climate change. While “nearly 7-in-10 Americans say that there is solid evidence that the average temperature on earth has been getting warmer over the past few decades”, only 4-in-10 Americans who identify as Tea Party members agree.

Defying the majority of scientifically-supported research, Tea Party members have radically influenced Republican candidates on climate change. Not only do Tea Party members reject that man-made climate change exists, but as Ezra Klein aptly pointed out,

“…Tea Partiers are also by far the most confident in their beliefs — more likely to say they are “very well informed” and that they “do not need any more information about global warming.” Note that this dovetails with earlier research finding that when you give those dismissive of global warming more information, it only serves to harden their doubts.”